Afghan students toss a burning paper with a drawing of U.S. President George W. Bush next to the words "Death to Bush!" as protesters rally in Kabul, Afghanistan Thursday May 12, 2005. A day after riots in an eastern city left four people dead, more than 200 young men marched from a dormitory block as news of a reported abuse of Islam's holy book at the U.S. jail in Guantanamo Bay spread to the capital. (AP Photo/David Guttefnelder) less

Afghan students toss a burning paper with a drawing of U.S. President George W. Bush next to the words "Death to Bush!" as protesters rally in Kabul, Afghanistan Thursday May 12, 2005. A day after riots in an ... more

2005-05-13 04:00:00 PDT Kabul, Afghanistan -- Anti-American violence spread to 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and into Pakistan Thursday as four more protesters died in a third day of demonstrations and clashes with police.

Hundreds of students participated in three separate demonstrations in Kabul, where they burned an American flag, and a provincial office of CARE International was ransacked in a continuation of the most widespread protests against U.S. presence since the fall of the Taliban government more than three years ago.

In the most violent single incident, the police fired on hundreds of tribesmen from Khogiani, a district in eastern Afghanistan, who were trying to march in protest on Jalalabad, the town where four people died and 60 were wounded Wednesday. The police had blocked the tribesmen, many of whom were armed, 20 miles from the city and had been ordered to fire into the air to disperse the crowd, said Fazel Muhammad Ibrahimi, the director of health in the province.

The Afghan authorities, the U.S. military and local residents blamed outsiders for the violence, saying they were seeking to capitalize on student protests stirred up by a brief report, published in the May 9 issue of Newsweek, that Americans desecrated the Quran during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Islamic fundamentalist political parties, remnants of the former Taliban government and a renegade anti-American commander, Guldbuddin Hekmatyar, are all potential sources of the violence, said Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.

The U.S. military is still trying to analyze whether the violence is politically driven, instigated by outsiders or a sign of general public frustration with the slow pace of reconstruction in the country, said a spokesman, Col. James Yonts. Students interviewed in Kabul pointed to the presence of U.S. troops in the country as another source of resentment.

Seeking to calm the passions raised by the alleged desecration, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed regret for the loss of life and promised a full investigation of the allegations.

"Disrespect for the holy Quran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be tolerated by the United States," she said in a statement issued before an appearance at the Senate Appropriations Committee.

In the Afghan capital, Kabul, protesters broke the windows of a new foreign-funded district administration office that was inaugurated Saturday by President Hamid Karzai. The rioters then attacked the offices of CARE International, the American aid group, and another aid organization, scaling the walls, breaking windows, smashing computers and beating some of the local staff. The crowd returned three times to the compound during the day, said Paul Barker, the country director of CARE.

Hundreds of students from Kabul University and Kabul Polytechnic demonstrated, but under a heavy police presence their protest remained peaceful. They blocked traffic for an hour outside the university as they chanted anti-American slogans and burned an American flag.

Some of the students demanded that U.S. interrogators, who are alleged to have placed copies of the Quran in a toilet to upset detainees and in one case flushed the holy book down the toilet, be arrested and tried by a Muslim court. Desecration of the Quran is punishable by death in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Others said they wanted President Bush to make a formal apology to all Muslims for the sacrilege. Demonstrations were reported in nine or ten towns, including several in northern Afghanistan, and in the northwest Pakistan city of Peshawar, and more protests were announced for today and Saturday.